Kotick: The Old Republic won’t make EA money

Posted By: Paul YoungerNovember 29, 2011

Everybody’s favourite videogame blind-hate figure, Activision CEO Bobby Kotick, has finally made public his thoughts on EA’s upcoming Star Wars: The Old Republic MMO. His general feeling is that, because of the way Star Wars licensing works, only George Lucas is going to make any money.
“Lucas is going to be the principal beneficiary of the success of Star Wars,” said Kotick. “We’ve been in business with Lucas for a long time and the economics will always accrue to the benefit of Lucas, so I don’t really understand how the economics work for Electronic Arts.
“If you look at the history of the people investing in an MMO and achieving success, it’s a small number.”
While it would be odd for EA to agree to a deal that doesn’t benefit them in some way, it wouldn’t be beyond the boundaries of possibility to suggest that the publisher will do anything to knock Activision’s aging World of Warcraft from top spot.
We recently released a trio of in-depth previews on The Old Republic, each focusing on a different element of the game. View them from our The Old Republic game page.